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I really want to like Julia. It has a nice type system, a good ecosystem, reasonable syntax, and it’s far faster than Python. But there are several issues with

by maxall4 28d ago

I really want to like Julia. It has a nice type system, a good ecosystem, reasonable syntax, and it’s far faster than Python. But there are several issues with its DX that prevent me from using it: the most severe of which being the complete lack of a cache for the JIT (or JIT like system), inducing multi second compile times for scripts that run in <100ms. There are some external packages that try to solve this issue, but they are far from first-party quality, and, in my experience, are quite buggy. (I last tried Julia a few years ago; perhaps this has been improved since?)

adgjlsfhk1 28d ago
a between session cache had been merged for 1.14 (release expected within 6-12 months).
- JanisErdmanis 28d ago
  What is this magic, how does it differ from PkgImages Julia already has?
  - adgjlsfhk1 28d ago
    pkgimages are keyed on package (and dependency) version so if you frequently add or update packages they don't help as much as they should. this new cache is at the function granularity and caches the llvm optimization and native codegen steps.
    - JanisErdmanis 28d ago
      Cool, can’t wait to try that out in a stable release.
bandrami 28d ago
[dead]
Joel_Mckay 28d ago
> tried Julia a few years ago; perhaps this has been improved since? The pre-compiled binary outputs are much smaller, and load a lot faster. =3
ssivark 28d ago
I imagine this will only become more important as we have more agents working on codebases in parallel; so a clean solution would be extremely valuable. On the flip side, the rise of agentic coding means that the library/batteries mismatch against python will largely stop mattering. It should be very easy to have an agent implement large libraries -- especially if they can be just a translation from one language to another (esp. one with with better primitives!)
jampekka 28d ago
Also the module/import system is still quite painful/hacky. Which is partly due to the long compile times. https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1.13-dev/manual/workflow-tips/ https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1.13-dev/manual/workflow-tips...

by maxall4 28d ago

adgjlsfhk1 28d ago

a between session cache had been merged for 1.14 (release expected within 6-12 months).

JanisErdmanis 28d ago
What is this magic, how does it differ from PkgImages Julia already has?
- adgjlsfhk1 28d ago
  pkgimages are keyed on package (and dependency) version so if you frequently add or update packages they don't help as much as they should. this new cache is at the function granularity and caches the llvm optimization and native codegen steps.
  - JanisErdmanis 28d ago
    Cool, can’t wait to try that out in a stable release.

bandrami 28d ago

[dead]

Joel_Mckay 28d ago

> tried Julia a few years ago; perhaps this has been improved since? The pre-compiled binary outputs are much smaller, and load a lot faster. =3

ssivark 28d ago

I imagine this will only become more important as we have more agents working on codebases in parallel; so a clean solution would be extremely valuable. On the flip side, the rise of agentic coding means that the library/batteries mismatch against python will largely stop mattering. It should be very easy to have an agent implement large libraries -- especially if they can be just a translation from one language to another (esp. one with with better primitives!)

jampekka 28d ago

Also the module/import system is still quite painful/hacky. Which is partly due to the long compile times. https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1.13-dev/manual/workflow-tips/ https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1.13-dev/manual/workflow-tips...